I've been buying a turkey about once a month lately. Good prices.
I take the breast meat off for me(everyone else says it's too dry). I make turkey salad with the dark meat. And sometimes turkey and cheese soup, my husband really liked that one. I use one part of the turkey breast when it's hot and slice it, the other I wrap and free for later.

Can hardly wait until the Turkeys go on sale as I just bought a larger freezer and I will definitely stock up this year. I buy the .29 cent a pound turkey. I make the main meal, turkey sandwichs with LC bread, turkey vegetable soup plus just nibbling on the cold turkey meal. The other day my market had ground beef on sale with an additional 50 cents off so I was down to 60 cent per pound so I bought 15 packages. I just make something like patties with mushrooms sauted in butter. Simple but my type of cooking.

Cheap and easy meal ideas - Quiche, all varieties. I make one called clean out the fridge quiche - leftover meat, veggies and cheese with eggs. Also corned beef and cabbage - uses canned corned beef which I got at Sav-A-Lot for $1. a can - I saute up cabbage and add the corned beef to the same skillet. Easy and cheap. Lots of hamburger recipes (sometimes I substitute ground turkey when it is on sale buy1get1 (bogo). Canned seafood from Trader Joe's turned into quick easy dishes like Seafood Salad (crabmeat and shrimp mixed with sauteed onions, celery and peppers, then mixed with mayo and topped with parm or shredded cheese - baked at 350 until heated through. Served with veggies - yummy.

I also make big roasts so that I have lots of leftovers. Then I take the leftover meat and turn it into another dish like shephard's pie topped with fauxtatoes and save that for another night when I have limited time - just pop it in the oven and it's good to go.

Today I am spending the day making a pot roast (bought on sale when it was buy1 get1 so I bought 6 roasts), some barbequed beef in my crock pot, LindaSue's White Castle Hamburger Pie (using ground turkey) so that I will be ready for the week ahead.

Well, I don't know how cheap this is but for me (since I can't cook worth beans), it would be a bargain at twice the price....

Bought some frozen Tyson Mesquite chicken breasts at Costco. They are completely boneless, fully cooked, and absolutely delicious. For $12.00 you get 18 breasts (they are a wee bit on the small side so I have two per meal) and they are only 1 gram of Carbs per breast.

chicken breasts by the case, but only when on sale
canned salmon goes on sale at Zellers every so often, sometimes they roll it back at Wal-Mart too.
Buy eggs by the flat instead of individual dozens, remember to save the cartons.
big cans of tuna at costco, the only bad part is you have to eat it for a while before it's gone, those cans are huge!!

check your deli for the ends of sliced meats (be carb careful though). Odd shapes sometimes, but it all tastes the same chopped up.

Holy carp! I would buy an extra freezer if we could get turkey 0.39 a pound! (I keep telling DH we need an extra freezer)

I do a lot with hamburger. Fry it up, mix in cream cheese or bake with favorite veggies topped with cheese, meatloaf (mix hamburger with ground pork rinds and eggs, bake at 350 until done), meatballs (same as meatloaf, only little balls).

Sausage is often cheap (watch carbs). It's really good sliced then fried with peppers.

Veggies: when fresh gets expensive, get frozen! A favorite side dish here is zuchinni and tomato (thinly slice a few baby zuchinni, saute and add a can of italian seasoned tomatoes, simmer for 5 mins). Cabbage is always cheap and is good sauteed or make a corned beef and cabbage (watch carbs on corned beef; if you buy the beef fresh, it often says how to make it on the pkg. I've never made it from canned).

Usually after a holiday, you can pick up stuff cheap. Canned pumpkin is often cheap after a holiday, as is meat (if they didn't sell it all first, lol!!). Same with canned veggies.

Use your leftovers creatively. When you only have a small amount of any meat, chicken or veggie left, don't throw them away. Reinvent them for another night's dinner.
Use leftovers for:
Omelette fillings
Salad toppers
Open-faced sandwiches -- put leftover meat/veg on top of one slice of LC bread, top with cheese and broil.

When brisket or chuck roast are on sale, I like to buy a BIG one and cook it up, then freeze it in portions for meals.

Bake any fresh veggie (broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, etc.) with a can of tomatoes (undrained) and some italian seasoning (or seasonings of your choice). It stretches the veggie dish and makes a delicious side dish that reheats great! Also works as a sauce for chicken or fish.

I'm a firm believer in the sharp knife discount. I buy most meat in bulk vaccum packs and slice into portions. Chuck Roast becomes Chuck Steak real quick and usually a dollar or more per lb less. With beef so expensive now it really pays. Found whole beef tenderloin for $4.97/lb the other day. The stuff you make Fillet Mignon out of that is usually $15/lb lately. Only hitch was it was from cow so not marbled. I sliced the whole thing into portions, wrapped with bacon and froze a whole bunch. Ate some that night and it was pretty decent and very very tender.

Buy whole chickens even if you want to fry or bake individual pieces. Very easy to chop up and save $2/lb.

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Atkins 2001 225/185/170 - lost 40 then found it again
SBD 2009 227/215/170 - down 12, 2 months

One thing that we buy that turns out to be cheap is the Country Cousin brand of PRE-cooked patty sausage. It's in the freezer case at my WalMart supercenter and comes in 3-4 flavors (we get the spicy kind).

Since it's already cooked, there is virtually no waste. It's $3.28 for two pounds. (for comparison's sake.....two pounds of RAW bacon costs about $9.00 right now, most of which will sizzle away in the skillet--the precooked bacon can't even touch this for cost savings)

You can micowave the sausage in about a minute. The patties are large, and the carbs are low. DH has two of those with scrambled eggs & cheese every morning and LOVES them.

Watch those sales papers! I'm always combing through the various store ads, to see who has the best deals. I usually decide where to go shopping this way. With a tight budget, I mostly make meals using ground beef, pork, chicken, or tuna. Breakfast and lunch quiches are a favorite, b/c they're filling, and make great leftovers. Grocery stores are now selling nut flours due to the holidays. This is the time I buy and freeze them, to use throughout the year.

Stick to mostly the basics (meat, eggs, veggies, and cheese), and limit the bars, shakes, specialty foods, etc... This is how we make LC'ing affordable. I've found out that making your own LC desserts, is usually cheaper than buying them in the store (I only make the simple recipes).

I buy chicken on sale, cook it and then wrap the pieces individually and freeze them in a large zipper bag. They're all ready for me when I need something quick!

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Started Induction 10/20/03
265/[color=green]235[/color]/150
St. Patrick's Day Challenge goals are:
1) To get as close to onederland as possible!
2) Exercise 3x a week (something I had a hard time doing this past month) and
3) To drink all the water I'm supposed to be drinking.

It's always time for cheapskate lowcarb in my house! Our menu is dictated by what is on sale!! The only exception is getting frozen bags of chicken tenderloins for chicken salad, that is a must have!!!

I buy my nuts at Sam's club. I go once every month and load up on almonds(for flour), pecans, and walnuts. I then chop or grind a storage bag full and then freeze for freshness.

I also buy a gallon-size of mayo because I use alot of it. I make alot of cole slaw, Cauliflower-Pea salad, and deviled eggs. I also have bought cream cheese there. It comes in a bulk container (like velvetta cheese). And I noticed that whipping cream was less expensive too.

I also try not to let anything go to waste. If something in the fridge is about to expire, I make something with it and then freeze it.

I try to save every penny that I can because we are on a tight budget and this woe can be expensive!

I buy fresh romaine lettuce, cilantro, green onions, radishes, bulk field greens, and purple cabbage. I make a huge toss salad and place it in a 2-gallon size baggie (I press all the air out to keep it fresh). We eat on this salad for 3-4 days. It's much cheaper than buying those prebagged salads and you control what goes in it.

I look for "bonus buy" meat at our FoodMax. It's meat that is going out of date today or tomorrow. I get rib steaks for $3.99/lb, 1/2 turkey's for 39 cents lb., hamburger 15% fat for 89 cents lb. I barbecue the steaks and we eat one meal off one steak and my husband has the rest for breakfast for 3 days. Rolls of Jimmy Dean sausage were 49 cents each! Cans of olives 68 cents each, Swanson's chicken broth 44 cents ea. Butter was $1.50/lb. I buy several lbs. and freeze.

Round steak! It's about the cheapest cut of beef and more so if you buy it on sale. The downside is you have to braise or stew it, but so what, it's a great change from ground beef and will keep in the fridge longer than ground.

My fave thing is to either cut it on the diagonal into chunks, or semi-freeze it to cut it diagonal thin slices to cut into bite size pieces. You can crockpot them with your favorite sauce--bbq, italian, mexican, what have you. I think this makes a good fajita meat if you like the lowcarb tortillas. You can also simmer it whole on the stove so long as it's covered in sauce. A can of chopped tomatoes is good for this, and then you have a Swiss steak from the old days. ;o)

Once you have your crock pot stew with the meat and sauce, you can add steamed veggies at the end for a filling meal.

This cut has next to no fat so if you try to fry or grill it, you'll make leather.

I keep a butter tub or tupperware in the freezer and put in left overs when it's full you have the ingred for a great pot of soup
just add meat or bullion cubes and water.
also I go to SWM late at night to get to the "day old" meat first
Sun morn is the best for steaks and roast

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This Catepiller is going to be a Butterfly some day
227/227/150???

We have lots of "99 Cent Stores" in the Los Angeles area ... if you have one near you, you can be a "low carb shopper" and find many low cost products just suited perfectly to Atkins. When I find them, I stock up. In the past couple of months, here are some of the things I have found (and stocked up on!), during various trips, at that wonderful 99 cent price; everything has always been great:

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EditGal
Started Atkins 11/22/02 (OWL now)
222/188.0/135
Ht: 5'2" maybe; 62 yo
34 pounds gone for good!!!
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you
didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
Mark Twain
Atkins Tribute Challenge started 4/21/03: 193/189.5/135

Thanks JosieL for posting the Tuna or Salmon Muffins recipe. I made them substituting cauliflower for the green pepper since that was what I had on hand and it was great. I plan to keep these around from now on!

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Finally getting a handle on
maintenance but still learning my limits.

Reposting my experience: check different areas of the grocery store! I found that the Kroger brand olives were $1.99 a jar and in the Mexican foods section, the Goya brand were $1.29! Same size jar and the goya had less sodium by 100mg! Meats and cheeses: check deli prices -v- pre packaged. Most of the time the deli ones are quite a bit higher.